Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO Finish the race, possess the land Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA April 24, 2005 Main Scripture text: Numbers 33:50-53. Living by faith presents us with one constant issue: What is God's part and what is our part? To receive the promises and benefits of being in relationship with the God almost always requires us to do something. This "something" might be obedience to God's commandments in general -- or there may be specific instructions He has for us. Let's look at two Old Testament stories. First Israel's entry into the Promised Land. God promised to deliver Jericho its Israel's hands, but they had to follow His instructions. They had to allow God to use them to take the land from the hand of the enemy. The Israelites had no means to destroy the walls of the city, but they could do something. They could: 1) March; 2) Blow trumpets (shofars); 3) Shout. God simply told them to do what they could do -- and He promised them that would be enough. It was. In Judges 7, we find another story of God doing the impossible through people who were willing to do what He asked them to do. God told Gideon He would deliver the Midianites into his hands, but he had to obey Him and trust Him. The Midianites had 135,000 men. God told Gideon to attack them with only 300 men. Following the Lord's instructions, they blew their shofars, lifted their torches, and shouted. The Midianites were routed by their own confusion and fear. Here's the point: In both of these situations God did what he had promised -- through the obedient action of His people. They were required by God to do what they could do -- and the Lord did the rest. Regarding our relocation to a new building, I used to think, "When God moves, we will move." That is backward. God's motto is: "When you move, I will move" -- in other words, "Let me see your faith." When we finally came to that understanding about our new building, we engaged an architect and started fundraising. We started doing what we could do, expecting God to do the rest. When we got moving, God moved. It seemed that suddenly we were debt free and had $300,000 in the bank. God has provided miraculously for this program. The best we can figure that we have raised $180,000-$190,000 from our own church family. And yet out total fundraising has been thus far has been about $565,000. In other words, while we came up with one-third of the money by doing what we could, God delivered with two-thirds! Several weeks ago we unearthed some more giants. We discovered that the building was going to cost us about $300,000 more than we anticipated -- which means at completion we will be about $550,000 in debt rather than the $300,000 we anticipated when we started. Today we are starting the process of doing our part to be debt-free as soon as possible. We must do what we can do -- trusting that God will do the rest, just as He has been doing thus far. So let's finish the race. Let's possess the land. Next Sunday, after the sermon, we're going over to the new building and write $550,000 on the bare concrete floor in the new sanctuary. We're going to stand around it, blow the shofar and shout -- so that every enemy will put to flight and all the walls between us and debt-free will be utterly demolished! Supporting texts: Joshua 6 | Judges 7-8 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here (30:00). (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) An audio tape of this sermon is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 050424a: Finish the Race, Possess the Land. © 2005 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us